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Grafting Fruit

A fun way to bring this variety into your garden is by producing a "cocktail" tree. Saw-kerf grafting can be accomplished over a long period (February through March) scionwood must be collected during the winter when the scion source is dormant.

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123 views2 pages

Grafting Fruit

A fun way to bring this variety into your garden is by producing a "cocktail" tree. Saw-kerf grafting can be accomplished over a long period (February through March) scionwood must be collected during the winter when the scion source is dormant.

Uploaded by

Ali Khouaja
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Timely Horticulture Tips Departmental Fact Sheet #H-00-049

Grafting Fruit Trees in the Home Orchard


Cooperative Extension Service/The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Kathryn C. Taylor, Stone Fruit Horticulturist, Horticulture Department, CAES


University of Georgia, 21 Dunbar Rd., Byron, GA 31008

o you have a neighbor, friend or relative that growth with 3-4 buds, that are 3/8 to 1/2 inch in dia-
D has a really wonderful peach variety that you
would love to have in your yard? Maybe it produces
meter and free of insects and diseases. Bundle the
scionwood and store it in green, pine sawdust or
fruit earlier or later than your tree; or it is really slightly moist sphagnum moss in the cold (an un-
good for pies or preserves or has a better munching heated basement or a refrigerator). Ideally, the
quality. Whatever the reason, you wish you had scionwood should be held at 34-36 degrees F until it
some of your own. But possibly you don’t have is used. When you are ready to graft, remove the
room for another tree or you don’t want to start scionwood from storage, but don’t allow it to dry
from scratch with a new tree? Or perhaps you aren’t out. Cut the pieces that you will be adding to your
really sure what the variety is, but you would like to tree in a wedge shape (Figure 1). Then cut the scion
have a few of those fruit every year. off at the top of the piece, leaving 2 or 3 buds. For
A fun way to bring this variety into your garden tree training, it is best if the lower bud is located to
is by producing a “cocktail” tree, one with a mixture the outside of the budstick near the top of the wedge
of varieties on the same tree. You may have had cut. Set the wedged scionwood to the side (where it
some propagation experience: possibly with bud- will not dry out), while you prepare the stock or the
ding trees or with rooting suckers or other cuttings. portion of the tree to which the graft will be made.
Even if you haven’t, you may enjoy adding this The stock is the tree to which you will add the new
variety to your existing tree by way of graftage, if variety. Generally, you must remove the top portion
your tree is in good health. To do this the somewhat of a scaffold (larger, weight-bearing wood) (Figures
difficult method of saw-kerf grafting is preferred. 2 and 3), in order to add the scion. The tree will
Saw-kerf grafting can be accomplished over a likely not allow the added scion to flourish if it is
long period (February through March). The scion- added to small wood without the removal of other
wood (the portion you are adding to the tree) must tissue. Cut the stock with a fine-toothed saw, using
be collected during the winter when the scion source approximately a 45-degree angle with the flat sur-
is dormant. Select shoots of the previous season’s face of the stock.

Figure 1. Scionwood wedge Figure 2. Scaffold to be removed for saw-


with lower bud to the outside. kerf graft.

1
Figure 4. Cut notches along the saw-
cut in stock to match scionwood
Figure 3. Remove scaffold from stock wedges.
with fine-toothed saw.

The saw cut should go into the stock so that it


extends 4 to 5 inches from the surface along the
outside. Using a heavy bladed knife, notch the stock
along the saw-cut to fit the scion wedge (Figure 4).
Insert the scion into the notch, lining up the cam-
bium of the stock and scion (the cambium is the cell
layer between the bark and wood) [Figure 5]. Pre-
cise matching of these cambiums is essential to the
success of the graft union. Put two scionwood
wedges in the stock scaffold. Paint all exposed
surfaces of the graft with a wound dressing or prun-
ing seal (Figure 6). Allow the grafts to grow about Figure 5. Insert scionwood
wedge into the notch.
18 inches. If both grafts on the scaffold grow, select
one to be the new scaffold and remove the other.
After the graft has taken and the scion portion
has begun to grow, you will need to take care to
remove any sprouts that form in the older tissue
(tissue below the graft), so that the old variety on
that scaffold does not overtake the new growth.
Finally, as the growth of the new scion flourishes, it
is wise to tack a 1/2-inch x 2-inch slat to the stock by
each graft to support the new graft and protect it
from wind damage.

Figure 6. Cover all exposed sur-


faces with wound dressing.

The University of Georgia and Ft. Valley State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and counties of the state
cooperating. The Cooperative Extension Service, the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences offers educational programs, assistance and materials to all people without regard to race, color, national origin,
age, sex or disability.
An Equal Opportunity Employer/Affirmative Action Organization
Committed to a Diverse Work Force
Departmental Fact Sheet H-00-049 July, 2000
Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 18 and June 30, 1914, The University of Georgia College
of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating.
Gale A. Buchanan, Dean and Director

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